SNP
Sir: The article (27 November) by Mr Adam Fergusson headed Can the Union survive? seems to me to be quite worthless as a statement on Scottish Nationalism. The very heading 'Can the Union survive?' is a question as to whether Great Britain can survive. There is nothing in the Scottish National Party's propaganda to suggest a break-up. Great Britain came into being with the .Union of the Crowns in 1603; for more than a century Scotland and England maintained their separate parliaments; in 1707 these parliaments were united and now the SNP wishes to go back to the old arrangement of each having its own parliament. There is nothing in this to suggest a break-up of the country.
The question then arises whether Scotland would be better on her own than in conjunction with England. The SNP has published heaps of leaflets, statements, etc pointing out the difficulties which Scotland suffers. One big one occurred with the nationalisation of the railways when the railway works in Inverness, Inverurie, Carstairs and Edinburgh were all closed down and the work transferred to Derby, Crewe, etc. Further instances can be got from the propaganda.
Most English people think that the Highlands of Scotland are an area of virtual desert. Within the last one hundred years there have been two Royal Commissions on 'The State of the Highlands' and they both ended with the same remark, that there is not one acre in the Highlands that could not be put to a better use. During the war I had occasion to meet quite a number of members of the Canadian Forestry Corps. I asked them what they thought of the Highlands and whether they could be made viable. Without exception their reply was to the effect that the Highlands could be easily redeveloped and we had only to go to see what they were then doing in the foothills of the Rockies to see that the redeveloping of the British Highlands would be a cakewalk. Some time later I had occasion to meet a gentleman w ho held high office in the Danish Ministry of Agriculture. I told him about this and he fully agreed, as he had seen what was being done in Western Canada. I said to him that I thought there might be difficulty in getting men who
would come from the central part of Scotland to take up holdings. His answer was, 'If you have any surplus holdings I will get people for them all twice over. People who, within a generation, will be as fervent Scots as you are.' There is much more in the whole movement than Mr Adam Fergusson indicated.
D. H. McNeill 16 Culduthel Road, Inverness
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